A former Loretto Hospital govt is accused of defrauding the federal authorities of lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} in reimbursements for pretend COVID-19 assessments, in response to a brand new federal indictment.
Anosh Ahmed, Loretto’s onetime chief monetary officer who resigned in 2021 amid a sequence of COVID-19 controversies, is already dealing with federal fees alleging that he plotted with others to embezzle greater than $15 million from the hospital.
Ahmed is now accused of collaborating in a pretend testing scheme that netted him and his co-conspirators $300 million in federal funds, in response to the newest federal indictment.
He was charged with 23 counts that included wire fraud, a conspiracy involving kickbacks and bribes, and different crimes.
Mahmood Sami Khan and Suhaib Ahmad Chaudhry, who together with Ahmed owned a number of non-operational Texas labs, have been additionally charged within the indictment, as was Mohamed Sirajudeen, who owned a Chicago-based scientific laboratory.
Between April 2021 and June 2022, Ahmed allegedly stole affected person information from the small West Facet hospital and used the data to hunt federal reimbursement for COVID-19 assessments, reportedly collected from uninsured people, which have been by no means really carried out
The group used Sirajudeen’s O’Hare Scientific Lab Companies Inc., and the non-operational Texas labs to submit the claims, the indictment states.
As a part of the scheme, Ahmed continued to gather COVID-19 samples on behalf of Loretto, despite the fact that he was now not affiliated with the hospital, to make the purported assessments seem professional.
In whole, Ahmed and others sought reimbursement for greater than $894.5 million in claims and obtained funds in extra of $293 million.
Ahmed can also be alleged to have obtained greater than $147 million in kickbacks from Sirajudeen’s lab.
Ahmed stays a fugitive as of Tuesday afternoon, in response to the U.S. legal professional’s workplace.
Chaudhry and Khan have been arrested Tuesday morning within the Houston space, and Sirajudeen was anticipated to voluntarily give up.
The chief govt of Loretto didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Controversy at Loretto Hospital was first uncovered by Block Membership Chicago in 2021. The positioning reported that the hospital vaccinated Trump Tower staff, the place Ahmed had a condominium, and held one other occasion at a high-end Gold Coast watch retailer, Geneva Seal High quality Jewellery & Timepieces, he frequented.
Ahmed resigned quickly after the controversies have been delivered to gentle.
Final summer season, Ahmed and two others have been charged in an alleged embezzlement scheme that lasted between 2018 and 2022.
The three allegedly ready and submitted requests for vendor funds that falsely claimed the hospital owed cash for items and companies it had not obtained.
They directed the cash to entities they managed and prompted the hospital to make funds via its computerized vendor cost system, in response to the indictment.
